Klar Tale har spurt Kinas ambassade om en kommentar til saken. Svaret er oversatt fra engelsk til norsk av redaksjonen. Det er også forkortet. Du kan lese hele svaret på engelsk nederst i saken.
Les saken om Yashar: – Faren min blir holdt fanget mot sin vilje
Ambassaden sier at det finnes leirer som følger FNs standarder for leirer mot terrorisme og ekstremisme. De kaller leirene for utdannings-sentre. De sier det er samme type sentre som finnes i USA, Storbritannia og Frankrike.
Leirene skal fri folk fra terror og religiøs ekstremisme. Ambassaden sier folk som har hatt trening der, forstår loven bedre. De snakker og skriver bedre kinesisk. Flere har også lært ting som gjør at de får seg jobber som kan gi familien en trygg inntekt.
Klar Tale har spurt om det stemmer at minst 1 million mennesker er fanget i slike leirer. Ambassaden sier tallet er et rykte. De sier at forskningen er usann. De mener at folk ikke må stole på rapporter hvor tallet er nevnt.
Ambassaden sier de ikke kjenner situasjonen til kilden Klar Tale har snakket med. De sier også at det er umulig å si noe om hver enkelt sak. Men de sier at mange av historiene om familier som blir formidlet til pressen, er falske. Enten har personene et godt liv, eller så finnes de ikke, sier de.
De sier det ikke er noen hindre for at uigurer kan ha kontakt med folk i utlandet. Det er ingen hindringer for folk som vil reise inn og ut av området. I området Xinjiang har det ikke vært verken vold eller terror de siste tre årene, ifølge ambassadens pressetals-person.
Klar Tale stilte disse spørsmålene til ambassaden.
- Is it true that at least a million uighurs are beeing held in camps like this?
- People who have escaped tell stories about torture and abuse. What is really happening in these camps?
- Have you heard from uighurs in Norway that say they miss family-members?
Dette er hele svaret fra ambassaden.
Firstly, the claim that "nearly one million Uyghurs are detained" is an outright rumor, and based on two absurd "studies" that are with ulterior motives.The first "study" was done by the US government-backed Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) with interviews of only eight people. The CHRD applied the estimated ratio shown in this absurdly small sample to the whole of Xinjiang, drawing a crude conclusion that one million people were detained in the "re-education detention camps" and two million were "forced to attend day/evening re-education sessions".The second "study" was done by a far-right fundamentalist Christian Adrian Zenz, a.k.a. Zheng Guoen. According to The Grayzone, a US-based independent news website, Zenz is a senior fellow in China studies at the far-right Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation established by the US government in 1983, and a senior member in a research group set up with the masterminding of the US intelligence community to study Xinjiang's vocational education and training centers. He believes he is "led by God" on a "mission" against China.In September 2018, Zenz wrote an article published in the Central Asian Survey journal, concluding that "Xinjiang's total re-education internment figure may be estimated at just over one million." According to The Grayzone, Zenz based this conclusion on a single report by Istiqlal TV, a Uyghur exile media organization based in Turkey. Far from a journalistic organization, Istiqlal TV advances separatism while playing host to an assortment of extremist figures. One such character who often appears on Istiqlal TV is Abduqadir Yaqupjan, a leader of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Maybe it was because the reference he cited was too absurd even to himself, that Zenz admitted that "there is no certainty" to his estimate. But Zenz "bumped up" his estimate again in November 2019, claiming China was detaining 1.8 million people.The vocational education and training centers, established in accordance with law in Xinjiang, are no different in nature from the community corrections in the US, the Desistance and Disengagement Programme (DDP) in the UK, and the deradicalization centers in France. All of them are useful measures and positive explorations for preventive counter-terrorism and deradicalization, and are in line with the principles and spirit of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and other counter-terrorism resolutions. Through all-round learning, the trainees have freed themselves from the influence of terrorism and religious extremism. Their overall capacity has been improved, as evidenced by a markedly increased understanding of the law, the ability to speak and write in standard Chinese, acquisition of practical skills and the general improvement in employability. Most of them have found jobs that give them a stable income, and notably improved their families' living standards.Secondly, we don’t know the specific situation of your source, and can therefore not comment on single cases. But we do notice that, in social media, overseas East Turkistan elements tell stories about their "families" and "friends" in Xinjiang who have "lost contact" or "gone missing". It has been verified by the authorities that the so-called "missing persons" are either living a normal life or simply non-existent. Separatist groups stole the pictures and personal information of normal Uyghur officials and residents in Xinjiang and misrepresented them to spread rumors. Xinjiang has never curtailed the freedom of travel of Uyghur people or people of any other ethnic groups. Nor is there any restriction on communication with relatives abroad. It must be pointed out that, the UN-recognized terrorist organization "East Turkistan Islamic Movement", and organizations like the World Uyghur Congress which are closely linked to ETIM, stand on the exact opposite side of the Xinjiang people.Currently, Xinjiang has not seen one severe violent terrorist case for over three years. The region’s economy and society are thriving. People are living in peace and contentment, and the public satisfaction with social stability has increased significantly. Incitement from any forces cannot obliterate Xinjiang's real achievements, and any attempt to make Xinjiang be in turmoil will not succeed.